Astronium urundeuva extract as antifungal agent: exploring the mechanism of action against Candida sp.

Abstract

This project is associated to FAPESP doctoral fellowship process number 2013/25121-5, entitled: "Chemical biological prospecting of hydrothanolic extracts of Astronium urundeuva leaves in the investigation of antifungal potential". The work will be performed under supervisor of the Prof. Dr. José Luis Lopez-Ribot (The University of Texas at San Antonio, USA). This researcher is well recognized for his studies involving the opportunistic pathogenic fungus Candida albicans. The frequency of candidiasis has increased dramatically in the last decades as a result of an expanding population of immunocompromised patients and recently becoming the fourth most common nosocomial infections. The seriousness of this problem is heightened by the fact that, even with treatment using available antifungal agents, mortality rates lie in the 30- 40% range for these infected patients. Thus, studies in Prof. Dr. José L. Lopez-Ribot's laboratory try to integrate these two facets to better understand and offer a more global perspective of C. albicans pathogenesis and results have already provided new paradigms in the host-fungus relationship during candidiasis. The time required in the proposal to develop the research activities are six months. This project aims to explore even more the mechanism of action related to the antifungal activity of A. urundeuva leaves, once we had already confirmed that this plant extract have this property. We also would like to discover if there are differences in the mechanism of action when this plant extract is loaded or not into nanostructured systems. Proteomic analysis and RNA sequencing techniques will be used as strategies to elucidate the mechanism of action involved with the antifungal activity of our candidate. In addition, we will test it against fungal biofilms, verify the efficacy against resistant clinical isolates of C. albicans and in combination with the most conventional antifungal agents. In conclusion, this work will lead gain of knowledge to explore new approaches of plant extracts with antifungal properties.